Interchangeable Fates
by Sawadoot
Summary: Hands connected lightly against the separation of glass and polished metal. As if being swallowed by an unfamiliar world wasn't enough, how was he to reverse this fate? [Prideshipping]
1. What To Behold

A trick of the mind is always the hardest to reveal for whatever comes, he never gave it much thought before. The afternoon was long with little coming and going in such a small area. Such a small shop. But that is partly the enjoyable factor of this.

It's quiet, the antique games that come into this shop never cease to fascinate him beyond comparison to every old dusty piece of furniture or weapon dated back to old age. So why?

He wonders quietly, standing before a mirror taller than he himself. He can scarcely reach the carvings on the top much less the part he wants to dust. Shining up the pieces is a part of his wages.

And though it is indeed a handsome piece he'd never given such things the time of day, no second glance. Though there's something alluring about the dull glassy shine and polished oak carvings.

Flowers and swirls of all types. But it's not that.

Something internal leads him into thinking such things, desires to see what lay on the other side of the fitted creme sheet that lay over top had gotten the best of him. All he'd found was dust and his dim reflection.

"I misplaced the stool again," Yugi grumbles, though lightly.

A hand graces one lingering handle he could be certain wasn't there before. A curious stare, he gives. Almost hurriedly pulling it as lightly as he could- it being old, to watch an empty drawer pull out.

Nothing was in it.

He pushes it back in, the mirror lightens up. Rubbing his eyes the light must be playing tricks. It looks just as dull as beforehand. He glances at it sideways- to be certain. Yet again nothing is there, it must have been some trick of the light.

With much strain, Yugi manages to get the sheet draped over it's slightly battered frame once again. Though it seems rather ominous now?

Fingers trail lightly down the sheet, silky to touch. And he jumps as the clock strikes two.

"Another time," Yugi promises with a slight cringe. Hurrying to the front counter as demanded by an impatient shopkeeper.

How odd.

* * *

"Perhaps it would be best."

Quiet voices plagued by restless dreams. He fears the blackness this presents. Whispers and eyes- oh the eyes! They stick to the four corners of his mind. Watching, beckoning. And he is frightened.

Even in his dreams- which he is sure, this must be, after all, no one but a madman sees eyes stuck to the imperishable walls of their room- he can see his own whitened knuckle grip.

They want him to look, to see. To open his mind, they want him to open his mind to the possibilities of the world- and life beyond. Though they utter nothing but whispers.

And he cries out. For what could they want. He has nothing.

"Look harder," the eyes are pleading with him. "Look again."

Voice thick with fear he cannot reply. So his fears are vocalized through the heart rather than his mouth, gaping wide as it is. He feels sucked into their lucid gaze, he knows now.

They widen. They scream. He screams with them through a suddenly loud mind.

"Look again."

A chill.

He wakes, startled to see the sun peeking through blinds. Waving him hello as his alarm blares impossibly loud. Shattering to his own fear-stricken mind.

"God, I-"

Exhausted. It was only a nightmare he reasons. The first in a while. He will soon forget.

Or so he hopes, wobbling from the bed.

Was he not to open his mind to the things of this earth? Or was it even that simple?

* * *

"What's up Yug'? You look awful tired today."

Yugi is snapped from his daydream. Half the class was gone he notices. "What time is it?" He asks, rubbing bleary eyes.

"Lunchtime.." Anzu is quickest to reply. "Did you stay up too long last night? You should take better care of yourself y'know."

He isn't listening. Drifting once again into that quiet state of listlessness. The one where he remembers eyes he cannot seem to forget- along with their fervent screams. The tears he could not see. And he wonders why on earth, why him? Why them?

Perhaps; an investigation would be necessary. He feels if he only follows they will lead him. Or maybe- it was him leading them. But to what?

A great destin-

"YUGI!"

He springs from his seat in surprise. Hitting an elbow off the desk chair. Grunting in pain Yugi cradles his elbow- stares at the others almost defensive for himself. "What?"

"You were dozing off again!" Hiroto is clearly frustrated by this. He'd like to eat sometime this year if possible and that might never happen if Yugi weren't to get up. They're too worried to leave him there on his own.

If someone were to get it in their head that he was easy pickings.

"I'm sorry I just- um, had something on my mind."

"Ya kill a man?" Jounouchi lightly jests. Kaiba snorts from across the room causing him to whip around on the spot.

"The hell was that for, huh?!" Jou already has his fists raised at the latter across the room, book in hand. A satisfied smirk that Jou would just love to punch inwards.

"Just the thought that someone so incompetent as Yugi would be able to carry out such a thing as murder and get away with it is so ridiculous that it hurts."

Practically snarling venom at this point, he's stopped by Anzu.

"It's not worth it. Let's just go eat."

With a grumble of "fine", they depart the classroom. Yugi looking as if he'd lost an entire year's sleep. Impatiently waiting out the rest of their school day just to see what pesters and prods him to look.

Though he gets his chance.

Almost immediately after school, parting with his friends for what seemed like too short a time. Probably considering the fact he'd been so out of it half the time; it stood to reason. He hadn't spent the day with them as much as his own thoughts.

The day is one of impatience, of eagerness for a good night's rest. Begging practically for such.

It arrives. The moment he'd heard the screams shake his very fiber with. And eyes closed, let's it lead him through the store room. As if pressure it builds ever so loudly.

Shaking hands grip a draped cover; they pull.

He slowly opens his quivering eyes. Turns a ghostly white in front of such a large mirror. The one from earlier.

Nothing is there.

But it had led him?

What had he done the last time? Suddenly it strikes him, one hand paused from where fingers were threading through his hair.

The drawer.

Curiously he reaches for it; twists it; pulls it.

Nearly screaming in terror, clamps two hands over his gaping mouth and allows a tiny shriek to escape in the process. Startling himself more and consequently-

The bewildered Pharaoh staring back at him.


	2. Reflection Once Told Me

Perhaps it is just to be terrified of such an occurrence. That some long dead Pharaoh stands bewildered inside this very mirror. Face etched in both surprise and the same horror he felt himself.

He wondered if this were the reason. Sweaty hands clasp together as if to wring out the anxiety of what was happening. And he wonders if the language- could they even communicate. Certainly not with all this staring each was doing at the bizarre revelation that both looked- surprisingly alike in many ways.

"Who are you?" Yugi says finally gathering up the courage to do more than gawk.

A sharper gaze widens with surprise. He understands? He wonders if this might be of the mirror's aid. That neither knows the language but for some reason, it is filtered to translation for the both of them.

Flexed but forefinger and thumb in a nervous manner and reaches to adjust the winged headdress. Cuffs shining a brilliant gold in contrast to Yugi's own leather accessories.

"Atem. I am, Atem." Brow quirks almost perfectly, he wonders to god who this man is and why he's so- pretty?

Yugi exhales softly, if not barely at all for fear he might ruin this. For what cause this was.

"Who are you?" Atem's voice is nearly magnified by the mirror nearly twelve times the size of his own tiny metal one, shined perfectly as all Pharaoh's things must be. It's a curious situation indeed, if not then some sort of miracle descended from the gods themselves.

Yugi feels his hairs stand on end. "I'm Yugi Muto."

A heavy silence as they continue to examine each other brows quirked, mouths set in impossibly straight lines. Marveling at the similarities of their almost likeness in appearance.

Atem has sharp; deciding eyes so Yugi notes in slight fascination.

"Are you a Pharaoh?" He blurts before anything can be said other than his dying curiosity in the fact he could possibly be talking to an important ancient figure. The desire to know outweighs the fear to ask.

Atem blinks slowly, then looks to his winged accessory that Yugi can only assume is a sign of royalty that they carry on their arm.

"Yes." It comes out a bit hesitant.

"And yet?" Yugi continues. Startling the person on the other end of the mirror.

"Yet, what?" He hasn't the slightest clue, not in a situation so- odd.

"You hesitated."

Atem nearly drops his own mirror in surprise, it shakes violently making the image on Yugi's end blur. Only able to swallow because he has no words. The great pharaoh stares sullenly onwards. Plucking a hair from a palace cat that he'd found out of sheer nervousness.

A sight amusing for most.

"Such things are ones that, in the line of responsibility to my people, cannot be said," Atem says in a tone that doesn't reflect his quivering hands.

Yugi has to bite his tongue almost as much literally as figuratively to keep from pointing out how his body contradicts those very words.

"Nevermind that. Why are you in my mirror?" Although it isn't exactly his, it was almost a waste of breath to explain the antique shop though he's fairly certain they have those in.. ancient Egypt?

He wishes to see with his own eyes just the tiniest bit what a real pharaoh looks like, more than just Atem's head and the jewelry that crowns his brow.

Perhaps it was just that enticement of curiosity. Was this a new game?

"In your mirror?" Atem is puzzled nonetheless over this stranger in the bronze and how exactly they came to be looking at him through the other end. In fact this gift was rather newly presented to him so in fact- was it some sort of magical device?

"You have one too, right?" Yugi's doubtful expression furthers Atem's own bewilderment.

"I suppose…. Yes. Does yours look different?" Could it?

He supposed only royalty had mirrors. And though Yugi as he said he was, looked nothing of royalty, he knows not to judge based on appearance.

"Mine is kind of- well it's- um- I can't explain it well enough." Yugi shrugs.

"Try." Is the response.

Quietly Yugi digs through his uniform pocket. Before slapping his palm to his forehead in chagrin much to the amusement of the other who gazes intensely through the mirror.

A few quick pencil scratches later he's holding up a somewhat terribly drawn- due to shaking hands, visual on what his own mirror looks like.

Atem can only become more bewildered than before.

"Is it large?"

"Taller than me."

He stifles a laugh to which Yugi glowers. "I'm not _that_ short."

"I never said anything of the sort." The pharaoh replies with a knowing grin. One that quickly dissolves into a height of concern.

"Why is it that we can communicate as we do? I doubt you would know the language of my homeland."

Yugi taps his chin, then fiddles with a strand of bangs as he often does when thinking very hard. A drawn out silence ensues. Each thinking as to why there would be such a miraculous occurrence which could only in one's mind be the work of the gods.

"Yugi." The sheet is drawn up as quickly as he could.

"Yes?"

"Why were you conversing with the blank mirror?" His employer, the lady who owns the shop asks with a hint of suspicion.

He looks back at the hardly covered mirror. At Atem. Does she not see him? "I was only talking to myself. I was admiring it."

She gives him a backward glance, hand on one hip which is the scolding stance.

"Well, don't dawdle and finish your work quickly please."

"Yes, ma'am."

Atem is staring at him with round eyes he knows. How was he supposed to keep a secret for long he wonders? Nor understands the reason behind such things. He's still wondering.

"I have to go." Atem nods.

Yugi's fingers hit the glass while fumbling for the sheet.

They easily submerge inside. Both stare at his hand in surprise, more for the fact that his hand is moving forward. Towards him.

He's being sucked in.

* * *

 **I am currently experiencing terrible writer's block so please forgive me if this seems to be lacking**


End file.
